Emma+Witte

On August 20, 1913, 20-year-old Emma Witte (or Witt), a clerk, died in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated that day at the office of Dr. Otis M. Walker.

Emma reportedly went to Walker's office early Wednesday morning. Dr. Charles L. West was summoned there to administer chloroform. He didn't linger, but returned late that afternoon he found Emma evidently lifeless, with Walker desperately attempting to revive her. She was rushed to St. Anthony's Hospital but declared dead on arrival.

Walker was indicted by a Grand Jury that day, but the case never went to trial. News coverage made mention of a letter from John Nakin that was found in her room, but the significance of the letter was not explained.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see [|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919].



 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database "To Probe Girl's Death -- Hint at Illegal Operation," //The Day Book//, August 22, 1913



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